Touch her heart with chocolates

Here's a hint for a Valentine's gift for your sweetie. Flowers? Dinner at her favourite restaurant? How about tying a red ribbon around her favourite heart-shaped box of chocolates? Some studies show that the latter, a box of chocolates, may be beneficial to her heart.

I must admit that I love chocolate. How many of you share my problem? Every time I succumb to my favourite chocolate bar, I get the usual guilty feeling -- so I could hardly wait to read about how chocolate could have cardiovascular benefits.Can chocolate make you high?

Dr. Louis Grivetti, Professor of Nutrition at the University of California, says that chocolate has been used since the 16th century to treat gastrointestinal problems, stomach pain, fever, fatigue and shortness of breath. I doubt it cured their problems, but I'm sure it was equal to most medicines.

But since love is in the air on Valentine's Day, will it help your love-making? If this is what you have in mind, chocolate might help here, too. The Aztec Indians considered chocolate an aphrodisiac. The story goes that Montezuma consumed a huge chocolate drink before visiting his harem.

Emotional Arousal

Alas, this is more fiction than science. A chemical called phenylethylamine is present in chocolate and does play some part in emotional arousal. But studies show that eating chocolate does not increase the levels of this chemical in the brain.

What a shame chocolate won't set your hormones ablaze. But at least scientists reported good news about its effects on the heart at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.

We know that procyanidin flavonoids are naturally found in cocoa. Test-tube experiments revealed that these substances help to protect vessel walls and inhibit inflammation as effectively as over-the-counter pain medication. Procyanidins also relax the arterial wall of the aorta, the largest artery in the body.

A Brazilian study revealed that chocolate allowed procyanidins to enter the bloodstream where they acted like antioxidants.

In fact, one study, conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, found that chocolate contained more of certain antioxidants than 23 different vegetables. In another study it was found that volunteers who ate the largest chocolate meal experienced the greatest increase in blood antioxidant activity.

Antioxidants are present in fruit and vegetables. Vitamin C and E are also potent antioxidants. It's believed that antioxidants remove free radicals from the body which are associated with aging and heart disease.

Dr. Carlos Fraga, Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Buenos Aires, reported, "These results support the concept that flavonoids present inchocolates can be absorbed in quantities sufficient to influence the oxidative defense in healthy adult subjects."

There's other good news. Researchers at the University of California discovered that drinking a cocoa beverage resulted in a decrease in platelet aggregation. The fewer platelets the less chance of a fatal coronary attack.

But, before you get carried away and buy two heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, a word of caution. Unfortunately, some of these studies were sponsored primarily by the chocolate-maker Mars Inc. One could argue a slight conflict of interest!

But on the other hand let's be fair. Mars Inc. is merely doing what many pharmaceutical companies do, providing funds for research studies in the hope that the final results will eventually sell their product.

A report from Tufts University stresses that these are just preliminary studies and that some are test-tube experiments which only show how certain chemicals extracted from chocolate work in isolation -- not how a chocolate bar might act in the human body.

It's also good to remember that you can't equate the antioxidants in chocolate with fruits and vegetables which also contain vitamins and fibre.

Big caloric wallop

This Valentine's Day, the message should be that chocolate in moderation can be part of a healthy diet. But never forget that chocolate is a high-fat, high-sugar food and packs a big caloric wallop. But, for chocolate lovers, isn't it gratifying to know that at least there is some nutritional value in chocolate?

It's also great for the psyche to be a little bad now and then. It adds adrenaline to our daily lives. As William Somerset Maugham, the noted author and medical student, wrote, "Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of habit."

So now you have plenty of time and lots to think about before Valentine's Day.